Christa steele
2x CEO | Recent Tech CEO | Former Bank CEO | RMR Models | Finance & Governance Expert | 10x Public & Private Board Director
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Christa Steele has led $500M - $1B organizations with proven success improving business results of under-performing teams. She brings the ability to develop long-term strategies as well as focus on tactical execution, and extensive experience managing complex organizations and situations.
board experience and corporate leadership
Christa is a well-known speaker and thought leader in digital transformation competencies keeping pace with the latest technological advancements and threats, identifying transformation needs and creating a roadmap to ensure ongoing progress. Christa offers 25 years’ experience in recurring revenue model (RMR), general management, operations and risk oversight with a collaborative management style enabling cross-functional teamwork and business results.
A trusted financial and governance expert, Christa has served twice as CEO, and on ten boards, serving as Board Chair, and Chair of Audit, and Compensation Committees. Christa is well versed in ESG strategies that address the environmental, social and governance reporting needs of organizations.
In early 2022, Christa was appointed interim CEO for Balco Holdings, Inc. Christa was responsible for all day-to-day financial, regulatory, operational, legal and risk oversight for the companies until the successful division and dissolution of holding company assets at year end 2022. Previously, she was an Independent Board Director since 2020. Balco was the holding company for Bay Alarm, Bay Alarm Medical, and Balco Properties companies, with revenues of $290+ million, over 1200 employees and family owned for over 75 years. Prior, Christa was President and CEO of Mechanics Bank from 2013-2015 where she led the improvement of core earnings 43% in a single calendar year, doubled the banks stock price in less than two years, and successfully led its sale for a premium in 2015.
Christa is twice named by the San Francisco Business Times, as one of “The Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business" in 2022 and 2015 and as a “North America Top 50 Private Directors to Watch” in 2019 by Private Company Director Magazine.
Current board roles include serving on the Audit, Finance and Risk Committees of The Doctors Company, the largest physician owned medical malpractice insurer in the U.S. headquartered in Napa, CA., Audit Committee and as Compensation Committee Chair of Tanimura & Antle, a large private, family-owned California agricultural food grower headquartered in Salinas; and as Board Vice Chairman for the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) in Northern California. Christa has served as a paid consultant to small and mid-cap companies for digital transformation, governance and ESG strategies. She is a nationally recognized speaker for Blockchain, ESG, and Big Data.
Prior board experience includes serving as Board Director, Finance Committee Chair and Interim CEO of Balco Holdings, Board Chair, Audit Committee Chair, Compensation Committee Chair, and Special Investigations Committee Chair at Recology, an ESOP company and integrated resource/waste collection company headquartered in San Francisco, Brainchip Holdings (ASX: BRN), the world’s first producer of neuromorphic IP and coined the next semiconductor disruptor for AI edge, headquartered in Australia with operations in California; OFG Bancorp, (NYSE; OFG), a $10 billion a retail and commercial bank with operations in Puerto Rico and the U.S Virgin Islands; Sasser Family Holdings, an international rail company based in Chicago; FIG Partners, an Atlanta, Georgia based boutique investment bank which was sold to Janney Montgomery Scott in 2019; and as Inside Director for Mechanics Bank (OTC), a $3.5 billion asset bank based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
education
- MBA from University of Southern CA (USC)
- BA from California State University Sacramento (CSUS)
- Stanford Directors' College
- Pacific Coast Banking School
- NACD Board Leadership Fellow
- Carnegie Mellon CERT Certification in Cyber Security Oversight
Speaking Engagements
Press and In the News
Publications
Thought Leadership Blog
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